Lifestyle

Your lifestyle is one of the three pillars of your mental and physical health. If your habits are irregular, or you’re travelling often or you have a great deal of stress in your life, both will suffer.

Ayurveda is based on the five elements theory, being that space, air, fire, water and earth - going from the lightest to the heaviest - comprise everything we see, feel, smell and taste. So if you fly often, the dry environment of the plane and the change in time will increase your space and air elements, known as Vata. This will result in insomnia, restlessness, memory loss, creaking joints, pain and lack of concentration. Air stewardesses, continuously exposed to this harsh environment, typically have problems conceiving, their Vata being sky high.

If you tend to have your meals at irregular hours, perhaps due to your work schedule, you are interfering with both your space/air (Vata) elements as well as your fire (Pitta) element. Our stomachs have digestive juices ready to digest a meal at regular hours, preferably those in keeping with the rhythm of nature. For example, when the sun is at its highest our appetite is usually strongest, i.e. at midday. So, if you have lunch one day at midday and the next at, say, 2pm your food will not be properly digested and will probably be stored as fat.

Your health can be optimised by living your life according to those elements which are dominant in your natal constitution, which you will learn through a consultation with Nora Coers.